Announcement - The St. Louis Astronomical Society ("SLAS") is distributing FREE solar eclipse glasses (while supplies last) to attendees of SLAS events from February to April 2024. There is a limit of 5 glasses per family and 2 glasses per child. To learn more about these events, please visit the SLAS event calendar.  Click the following link to view the event calendar: https://slasonline.org/events/our-events. Contact the St. Louis Astronomical Society for more details: https://slasonline.org/contact-us

 

SLAS Regular Meeting

McDonnell Hall, Washington University - St. Louis

7:30pm Friday, April 19, 2024

 

 “NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter”

by

Fran Bagenal, PhD; University of Colorado, Boulder

 

Juno’s goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars. With its suite of science instruments, Juno is investigating the interior structure, mapping Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measuring the distribution of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere – and exploring the mysterious Great Red Spot. As its orbit has evolved over 8 years, the spacecraft has also made flybys of the Galilean moons Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. JUNO is also the first spacecraft to fly over Jupiter’s aurora and measuring both the energetic particles raining down on the planet and the bright “northern & southern lights” they excite. A huge bonus is the small public outreach camera that is taking fantastic images of Jupiter’s beautiful clouds. The images – some science, some art – are processed and shared by the public around the world. NASA’s JUNO mission was launched in August 2011 and has been in orbit over Jupiter’s poles since 4th July 2016.


Dr. Fran Bagenal is a research scientist and professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder and is co-investigator and team leader of the plasma investigations on NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Juno mission to Jupiter. Her main area of expertise is the study of charged particles trapped in planetary magnetic fields and the interaction of plasmas with the atmospheres of planetary objects, particularly in the outer solar system. She edited the monograph Jupiter: Planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

 

Born and raised in the UK, Dr. Bagenal received her bachelor degree in Physics and Geophysics from the University of Lancaster, England, and her doctorate degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from MIT (Cambridge, Mass) in 1981.  She spent five years as a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College, London, before returning to the United States for research and faculty positions in Boulder, Colorado. She has participated in several of NASA's planetary exploration missions, including Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Deep Space 1, New Horizons and Juno.

 

https://lasp.colorado.edu/home/mop/home/people/fran_bagenal/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3293128/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

 


 

The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM Friday, April 19 in McDonnell Hall, Room 162, on the Danforth campus of Washington University, Saint Louis, MO 63105. McDonnell Hall is accessible from Forsyth Boulevard via Tolman Way. Free yellow zone and garage parking spaces are available. The event will also be available via Zoom online conference.

 

To request Zoom link, please click here

The event, cosponsored by NASA's Missouri Space Grant Consortium, is open to the public free of charge.

 

Meeting Agenda

Main Speaker

SLAS Board Member Nominations for May Elections

Announcement Special Recognition Award Nominations are due by Sep 1st. 

Register now: MSRAL 2024 June 7-9, Hosted by Omaha Astronomical Society

 

Please renew your Expiring Memberships. LINK

SLAS has 2024 group permits for Whiteside and Danville.

 

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

Please remember, eclipse glasses must be worn at all times when looking at the Sun. Only during the few minutes when the eclipse is in “Total” eclipse, is it safe to look at Sun directly.

 

When is the eclipse for Missouri? – The Solar Eclipse will occur early afternoon on Monday April 8, 2024. The Moon will start covering the Sun around 12:38pm CDT, this is called the partial phase of the eclipse. Totality begins when the moon has completely covered the Sun, this begins around 1:54pm CDT. The Moon will completely cover the Sun for up to 4 minutes and 10 seconds, depending on your location. After totality ends, the Moon will gradually uncover the Sun, and this partial eclipse will end around 3:14pm CDT. Precise times for cities and towns in Missouri can be found here: https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/total/mo

Where do I need to be to see the Totally Eclipsed Sun? – The immediate St. Louis area is NOT in the Total Eclipse Path. You must travel approximately 100 miles south or east to be inside the Total Eclipse Path. You must be inside the Total Eclipse Path to see the Moon completely cover (eclipse) the Sun. The center of this path runs from Texas to Maine, passing through: Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Vermont and Maine. The Total Eclipse Path is around 120 miles wide in southeast Missouri. Outside this path you will only see a partial eclipse. Inside this path the Moon will completely block the Sun, allowing you to see the Sun’s inner and outer atmosphere and corona. Accurate maps can be found using these links:

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/map/2024-april-8

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2024_GoogleMapFull.html

https://eclipsewise.com/2024/2024.html

Are there events and activities going on during the eclipse? – Many cities and towns in southeast Missouri will be hosting events and eclipse viewing. Some host events are spanning Friday to Monday. Check each location for details. The following website has links to Missouri eclipse events: https://moeclipse.org/

Where can I get eclipse glasses? – The St. Louis Astronomical Society ("SLAS") is distributing FREE solar eclipse glasses (while supplies last) to attendees of SLAS events from February to April 2024. There is a limit of 5 glasses per family and 2 glasses per child. To learn more about these events, please visit the SLAS event calendar.  Click the following link to view the event calendar: https://slasonline.org/events/our-events. Contact the St. Louis Astronomical Society for more details: https://slasonline.org/contact-us

 

Eclipse Educational Videos:

2024 U.S. Total Eclipse Explained (2 minutes)

Solar Eclipse 101 | National Geographic (5 minutes)

Lunar and Solar Eclipse Explained: A Beginner’s Guide to Eclipses (7 minutes)

Flyover North America for the Total Solar Eclipse of April 8, 2024 (3 minutes)

 

Upcoming Meetings:

 

April 2024: Fran Bagenal, PhD. Exploration of Jupiter System: Past, Present and Future”; University of Colorado at Boulder

May 2024: Gautham Narayan, PhD  “Understanding the Dark Universe with the Vera Rubin Observatory”;  Univ of Illinois

June 2024: Steven R Gullberg, PhD.   “Archeoastronomy”;  University of Oklahoma

 July 2024: Ashley Davies, PhD. “Juno Close Flybys of Io"; JPL

August 2024: Bradley Tsalyuk, Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, California Science Center

September 2024: Joseph Marcus, MD, "“Who Discovered the Expanding Universe?  Spoiler: Not Hubble!”

October 2024: Pamela Gay, PhD., "Secret Squirrel Stuff", Planetary Science Institute

November 2024: Robert Zubrin, PhD. “The Case for Mars”; The Mars Society

January 2025:  Bhupal Dev, PhD.  “Finding New Physics in Debris from Colliding Neutron “Stars; Washington University.

March 2025: Tom Rathjen  "What’s Happening in Human Space Flight”; The Aerospace Corporation

 

SLAS in the News

HECMedia: Dark Sky Missouri - Stacy Park Olivette, MO

Ladue News:  Seeing stars: Upcoming events and opportunities for St. Louis stargazing, By Ashley Klein,

Jefferson County Leader: Aim for the Stars, By Kevin Carbery, July 27, 2023

KMOV Channel 4 did a morning story on June 20, 2023 about the Library Telescope Program and the upcoming solar eclipses

https://www.kmov.com/video/2023/06/20/great-day-4-kids/

 

Our new SLAS coffee mugs have arrived. They will be available to purchase at
our regular meetings at Washington U. Price: $10 each, 2 for $15 

 

 

 

2024 Astronomy Events by Mark Jones



Social Hour - 30 min after meeting conclusion or 10:30 Which ever is earlier.

Randy Harrison's Lookin' Up Optics page:  http://lookinup.info/

Here are the websites that Dr. Gokhale mentioned in his talk in June
Dark Sky Missouri
www.darkskymissouri.org
Video: 'Saving the Dark' A film on Light Pollution by  Sriram Murali
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fHxNn-FEnc

Globe at Night program for light pollution

https://www.globeatnight.org/

 

 

Telescopes for Sale! 

 4.25-inch f/10, Reflecting Telescope, Wooden Tripod, 6x30mm finder, 1 ¼ focuser, $10
 
Majestic Tripod Head-only, Heavy Duty head, w/1/4x20 screw mount, Mounts to 1.5” post, crank pivots head in altitude direction, $10
 
Small Equatorial Mount. Manual with slow motion knobs and counterweight. Similar to Sky-Watcher EQ-2 mount, $30
 
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  - Link for details and photos
 



 Shirts and Mugs for sale!

Shirts and Mugs for Sale

All shirts are $10!!!

Moon Shirt
Globular Cluster Shirt
Pleiades Shirt
 There is also a Dobsonian shirt

New Poster from Guy Ottwell you might be interested in
It's called the Zodiac Wavy Chart
 
https://www.universalworkshop.com/zodiac-wavy-charts/?mc_cid=cfa6f33be8&mc_eid=9d6fcdbdfa